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Argh! The voice spam! It burns!  XML
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320

Wicked Sick!

Joined: 10/11/2005 21:28:38
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In the last couple weeks I have noticed the chat spam has skyrocketed. It's often so bad that people are talking over each other and so neither is understood, so they need to repeat what they said again. Makes the situation that much worse.

A lot of the voice chat are legitimate questions about the game, but they are the same questions being asked over and over and over. This is a good thing, on the one hand, as it means there is an influx of new players. But obviously there is a downside to it.

Also, the spam about "does anyone have a good flak/mini/link/etc" and "where is weapon x?" These questions are simply constant now. I might ask where one weapon is, maybe two, but only after I've made an effort to locate it myself. There are some that are asking this same question five times per map.

Now, I know I am guilty of chat spam on occasion. Particularly when a more advanced question is posed that is not covered by the DC faq or Bot's faq, I like to help out. So I a making a conscious effort to keep this to a minimum. I've even disabled my own voice chat for the short term.

Going forward, when the same player gets to his third or fourth question, I'll just hit this keybind.

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Chyster

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Joined: 02/08/2005 20:26:37
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Yes, I have noticed this as well and being that complaints are starting to be voiced...........

I'd rather folks just block out the offender. But this doesn't help much if they are "walking on" someone else who is trying to talk. The best thing to do, and is even better than the tinyURL, is to tell peeps to........Learn how to Type

I don't mind typing out the answers to questions if people take the time to ask them in text. Besides, IMO, the tinyURL lends to an uncaring and indifferent attitude that others might perceive of us. We care, or at least I do, that new people to the server have the ability to ask questions of the "Old Timers" and learn from them. I had that opportunity as did many of the other older members. Now with that being said, there is a great big difference between learning/teaching and being innundated by ignorance.

Also there is an importance issue. What is more important, talking about the game or about how many cubic inches of engine we can stuff in a beer can? Do we talk about our kids and lives or limit it to game oriented information? We should be able to do it all, but through using manners. I have never done this, but I believe there is a way and option of setting up channels to hold private conversations.

The only thing I could do to help is to start sessioning voice spammers. But, for the sake of fairness, I would not be able to discriminate. It would be for all peeps, both contributors and non-contributors alike. Some of our contributors are just as guilty of hogging the airwaves as anyone else.

I really hate to start doing stuff like this, it breaks my heart.

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Hobo_Joe

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This is precisely why I don't use the mic....so I don't cut someone else off and they don't cut me off.

Well, that and I just don't have a whole lot to say most of the time so I don't worry about it.

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BotFodder

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I think I've grown quite a bit - I try not to talk too much unless I have something to give out or something important to say. I have participated in convos but try to keep it between waves. I know I used to be known as one of the bad ones ... but I've been finding myself thinking more and more, "I can't be *that* bad."

I must say I've tried to find a way to turn off voice reception using a keybind - ignoring a particular person doesn't always work, and I'd like to quick key the issue so that I don't risk a death while I'm working on the "Communication" window. I've found myself having problems with folks who continue to ask the regular FAQs (especially after being pointed to the FAQ lists), particularly during rough waves; or when I'm trying to listen for monsters and people are chatting it up. I even regularly find myself unable to communicate some important issue to people because folks are continuously talking.

What's worse is I've found people trying to talk to me and I've accidentally tuned them out, because I've tuned out all the chatty people.

I hope I haven't recently been one of the culprits with this - if I have, I apologize. Draw some satisfaction from the fact that I too am having issues and sometimes find it all becoming white noise.

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Continuum

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Ive seen Teamspeak used on other servers it seems to be alot better than the voice chat unreal came with.




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Sour_Grape

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I use teamspeak. private channels. voice activation, so no button worries. talk with friends doing things other than DC. leave text messages. whisper to individuals. etc.

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Shantara

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Here's my two cents:

One: point out to a chatspammer that they are chatspamming. If that doesn't seem to register with them, and they are obviously oblivious to the rules, proceed to step two.

Two: http://www.disastrousconsequences.com/dcforum/posts/list/861.page

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crispycritters



Joined: 03/12/2006 00:26:35
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is there a way to completely disable voice chat? I'm on a slow connection, and my (verbal) english is not so good so I only understand 1/3 of the conversation to begin with. And I don't feel very comfortable telling much higher level players to be quiet.
320

Wicked Sick!

Joined: 10/11/2005 21:28:38
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Shantara wrote:
Here's my two cents:

One: point out to a chatspammer that they are chatspamming. If that doesn't seem to register with them, and they are obviously oblivious to the rules, proceed to step two.

Two: http://www.disastrousconsequences.com/dcforum/posts/list/861.page
 


Shantara, it is not the typical voice spam problem. In other words, it's not one particular individual who is chatting it up too much. It's chat volume or noise pollution. If someone is chat spamming, I ask them to please stop. And when the QA stuff is going on too long, I ask people to stop that as well on the tough waves.

Like I said, a lot of it is legit, but it's the volume that's the problem. Part of the reason for the high volume is many regulars will jump in to answer newbie questions. While it's well-intentioned, it is also creating a tremendous amount of noise pollution. That's why I direct people to the web site now.

There's no way this is going to cut down unless the newbies get a little tough love after the third question or so.

The other aspect is all the arms trading that's going on. "Where's weapon x?" "Can I get a good flak?" "Would anybody like xyz weapon?" Again, mostly well-intentioned stuff, but in such volume as to be deafening.
Continuum

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I usually have hardware 3d w/EAX enabled so I don't even hear any of the voice chat although I do see the players portrait flash on the side of the screen.

IMHO Eax is well worth sacrificing the voice chat it makes the game feel much better.




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Joined: 12/19/2004 20:59:52
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crispycritters wrote:
is there a way to completely disable voice chat? 


Yes. Somewhere in the settings there is an option to enable/disable voice chat completely on your side.
I'm sorry I dont know exactly where in the settings but I'm not able to access my PC at this time.

Continuum wrote:
I usually have hardware 3d w/EAX enabled so I don't even hear any of the voice chat although I do see the players portrait flash on the side of the screen.

IMHO Eax is well worth sacrificing the voice chat it makes the game feel much better. 


Agreed. I almost always preferred to have surround sound work properly instead of listening to chatter.
Also, if you've ever heard anyone say their speakers sound like they are about to explode, they have the Software Audio setting active. It really sounds bad when you have a Penetrating Shock Rifle going.
Spacey

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I will also point out that there are other options.

Crispycritter was wondering how you could disable voice chat...besides the settings, you could do things like un-join the public and team channels, or all of them. It gives you a bit more control on things if you find you still want to hear some of the voice traffic I just wish the private channels worked, as sometimes it would be nice to have a brief voice conversation with someone during the game, but that seems to have been broken some time ago.

And for the chatty new player (typically some kid, and I know Avis has been like this a few time) constantly asking "how do I do X? what does Y do?"...real quickly I find myself hitting escape, going into the communications menu, and ignoring them. It gets rid of the nuisance, and is great, even if I do not hear them offering up that golden weapon that I have been trying to make, or hear them asking for a weapon I am handing out. I will take that over their chatter any day.
And best of all...it removes the nuisance immediately. No need to report them or wait for some admin to take action.

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320

Wicked Sick!

Joined: 10/11/2005 21:28:38
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Spacey wrote:
I will also point out that there are other options.

Crispycritter was wondering how you could disable voice chat...besides the settings, you could do things like un-join the public and team channels, or all of them. It gives you a bit more control on things if you find you still want to hear some of the voice traffic I just wish the private channels worked, as sometimes it would be nice to have a brief voice conversation with someone during the game, but that seems to have been broken some time ago.

<snip>

 




The other day I was trying to put people on ignore and some I could. With others, nothing happened...

I will try the EAX thing and if that works, use it when the spam gets to be too much. That way, no one player feels singled out, etc.
320

Wicked Sick!

Joined: 10/11/2005 21:28:38
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Yesterday I tried the other audio modes (EAX and the other one). The fourth option was causing my game to crash. I don't think my card supports it well. The third one in the dropdown worked very well. I occasionally heard chat, and sometimes it would get cut off mid-sentence, but most of the time it was silent.

Does anybody know if this means I'm filtering the chat on the client side, or is the server not even sending the voice data at all? Because if it's the latter, I'll switch to it when the synch lag kicks in.
darkway



Joined: 10/11/2005 16:20:05
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I try to not talk too much. I do enjoy knowning where people are from and I am keyboarding dissadvantaged so I am slow. When the chat spam gets too bad there is always turn up the ipod or press exit and return later.I think most players are respectiful and some new ones just need to learn to observe and fit the program.
 
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